Bonded Souls
by JellydiAngelo
Summary: Roy knows how much the Elric brothers have lost, and didn't think they had much left to give up. But when their train crashes and their bodies aren't found in the wreckage, he's about to realize just how wrong he was. Both brothers still have plenty to give.
1. Prologue

_Disclaimer: I don't own Fullmetal Alchemist or any of the characters_

Prologue

Looking back, Edward could only remember noises.

He'd been woken up by shouts of alarm, followed by screams from people in the cars ahead of them. Metal grated against metal, screeching. Then the booming of explosions, one after the other. Al shouted his name in alarm. Then there was silence.

And no matter how hard he tried, he could not remember anything else.

Looking back, Al could remember everything in startling clarity. He had been watching as Ed gradually dozed off, then had turned his attention to the passing countryside. It was an empty, but comfortable silence, just like any other time. Then, something was wrong. A frightening amount of smoke flitted past the window, carrying echoes of alarm from the front of the train. Someone screamed, and metal grated against metal as the brake was pulled. But the train was still going too fast.

Ed jerked awake just as the first explosion went off. His mouth moved, but in the commotion, Al didn't hear what he said. Another explosion went off, closer now sending vibrations throughout the whole train, which rocked and swayed. Al shouted to his brother, reaching out and pulling him protectively against his metal chest. He threw himself onto the ground, his arms still around Ed shielding him with his whole body.

Then screaming, and falling, and blackness.

When Mustang heard of the train wreck, he grimaced. From the reports flooding in, it was bad. The worst that had happened in several years. The teams digging through the rubble had yet to find any survivors. The investigation was slow going, and the cause had yet to be determined. Or if it had been determined, Mustang had yet to hear of it.

He was still in headquarters at East City, in his office idly tapping his pen against the desk. Something didn't feel right.

This was confirmed, minutes later when Hawkeye strode into the room. Her expression tightened the knots in his stomach.

"Lieutenant?"

Her grave eyes met his. "Sir. About the train wreck earlier this morning."

"Yes?"

"The Elric brothers were on that train."

 _A/N_

 _who's late to this party? I am!_

 _I just finished watching FMA:B not so long ago, for the first time. And, oh boy._

 _So here I am. This is a super short chapter. More of a prologue/intro thing. I have an idea of where this fanfic could go. We'll see how this goes._

 _Thanks for reading._

 _Peace out,_

 _JellydiAngelo_


	2. Chapter One

_**Disclaimer: I don't own anything (and that's probably a good thing)**_

Chapter One

He should have seen it coming. Of course. _Of course_ the Elric brothers were in the middle of the latest disaster. Why wouldn't they be?

Mustang exhaled, a long slow breath to ease the initial shock of the announcement. He stood and leaned against his desk, careful not to knock over the stacks of paper from the reports that had been flooding in all morning.

"How do you know?" He asked Hawkeye. His blood chilled at the next thought. "Did they… find their bodies?" Or Fullmetal's body. He wondered how Alphonse would have fared in the accident.

"No sir." Her frown deepened. "The East City Station provided a full list of passengers and it was confirmed that they all checked into the train. Including the Elric brothers. Last I heard, the search is still ongoing."

Mustang nodded, pushing away from his desk. "Let's go. One of my subordinates was on that train, I want to be there."

"Sir." Hawkeye hesitated, her tension almost tangible. "The reports don't sound optimistic."

Mustang had a lot of practice with assuming the worst. His mind had already gone there, but Hawkeye voicing her own concerns brought them all back again. He pushed them to the back of his mind. He needed to focus.

"I have a feeling Edward would rather drink milk every day for the rest of his life then let something like a _train wreck_ kill him. And he had Alphonse looking after him."

Maybe it was foolish to hope. But Mustang had to.

"Come on, Lieutenant. You can fill me out on the rest on the way."

* * *

They had been heading to Liore, following a lead on the Philosopher's Stone. Had boarded their train not long after helping with the Freezing Alchemist incident. The train had barely been traveling for half an hour when the accident occurred. At the site there was already a search team, a medical team, and several military officers overseeing the investigation.

"Colonel Mustang." A captain, as shown by the stars on his uniform, called out to him as he approached, "I didn't expect you to come all the way out here."

"Captain." Mustang acknowledged but didn't bother with any other pleasantries, "Report."

"Sir. It's slow going. We have yet to find any survivors, but we still have a few carts to get through."

Mustang turned to look at the wreckage as the captain talked. He grimaced. Most of the train, or at least the few pieces that were intact, were on its side. Most of it just looked like twisted pieces of metal, littering the ground. It barely resembled the original train anymore.

"Any sign of the Elric brothers?" Mustang asked. "Edward and Alphonse Elric were on this train."

"The Fullmetal Alchemist and his brother?" The captain shook his head. "I would have heard of it if we found them. They must have been further back. We're just starting the search down there."

"Do you know the cause yet?"

His expression turned grave. "Yeah, and it's not good. Looks like sabotage Colonel."

Mustang stiffened, but instead of speaking just waited for him to continue.

"There were definitely bombs, we think they were _on_ the train, maybe underneath the carts. Only one cart remained intact, so it seems like that was the only one that didn't have a bomb strapped underneath. But even before the bombs went off, the train was derailed."

He gestured for Mustang to follow. Mustang walked with him towards the train, while Hawkeye went to the group searching through the rubble.

They walked to the railway track, then followed it heading away from the wreck. Mustang could immediately see the problem. Several inches of the track was missing.

Mustang crouched down, running his fingers along the obviously cut edge of the track. "So someone took the time to cut away the track to derail the train, and then they bomb it right after?" Mustang scowled. "Someone really wanted that train to crash."

"Yeah, looks that way." The captain. "The cut was clearly recent. A train went past on this rail just yesterday. That was the last time this track was used before this morning."

"No doubt about it then." Mustang said, standing up. "Someone targeted this train. The question is why?"

Mustang had a sinking suspicion it had to do with the Elrics.

The search continued. Rubble from the train was hauled away. Bodies piled up, and survivors were yet to be found. The one cart that had remained mostly intact had already been searched and confirmed empty. The remaining piles of rubble that had yet to be searched did not look promising.

Frustrated with the slow pace, Mustang sent for another team from East City to come and help.

The sun was well past its peak when the captain confirmed the search was over. No survivors were found. Some of the bodies were unrecognizable, but Mustang ordered a count to see if they had missed any. There hadn't been any reports of a suit of armor, but with the explosions, there was no telling that any of it would have remained intact.

Mustang watched the medical team move among the bodies. Hawkeye remained in a grave silence at his side, clearly sensing the black nature of his mood.

 _You better have gotten out of this, Fullmetal._

The captain walked up to Mustang. "72 confirmed deaths."

Mustang turned to his lieutenant. "How many people were on the train altogether."

Hawkeye slipped the case folder from under her arm and flicked it open. "75, sir."

"That means there are three missing bodies." Mustang could feel the shadows of a headache pushing against his temples. "So either they jumped out of a moving train, someone pulled their bodies out of the wreckage before we got here, or…" other possibilities swirled in his mind. Something, something was going on here. And Mustang couldn't help the feeling it was something big.

That wasn't surprising with Edward Elric. He made up for his small size by creating the biggest disasters for Mustang to deal with.

"Sir?"

Mustang blinked at Hawkeye's voice, refocusing in the present. "Alright. Captain, tell the medical team to keep examining the bodies to determine for sure who is missing." _Please don't find that Pipsqueak's body._ "Give them a full list of the passengers who were in the train. If they want to move their work back into the city, make sure they get the transportation."

The captain nodded, then with a quick salute, walked away to talk with the medical team. Mustang turned to Hawkeye. "Let's go look at that one surviving cart. Something tells me that wasn't an accident that this one was missed out."

The sky was darkening, and the little light that was left was quickly being swallowed up by the clouds that had been gathering all day. Mustang hoped that wasn't a sign of coming rain. That was the last thing he needed.

They arrived at the overturned, but mostly intact cart. With some effort, Mustang climbed on top of it in order to get a view inside. It had already been reported empty, but they had been looking for bodies. Mustang was looking for evidence.

Immediately, his eye caught onto a scrap of red fabric, wedged between the cushions of the train's seats. Careful not to cut himself on broken glass or jagged metal, he lowered himself into the cart. Shards of glass crunched beneath his boots. Bare fingers reached out and grasped the red fabric. The shade was unmistakable, even though it was tainted by scorch marks and stains that looked worryingly like blood. Mustang had seen this obnoxious color enough times to know it's origins.

"Alright, Fullmetal. What have you gotten into this time?"

* * *

Hi _guys!_

 _Sorry for the wait. I was going to write this sooner, but then I realized Camp Nanowrimo was coming up and I decided to do this for that. So If all goes to plan,_ hopefully _I'll get a bit done on this story this month._

 _A couple things, just in case anyone is confused. I renamed that first part the_ prologue _, and this is the first chapter. I tried to change it but_ idk _if that worked. Also, in the_ prologue _I said Mustang was in Central, but I changed that. He's in East City because I decided that I'm going to place this fanfic right in the beginning of_ FMA;B _timeline. So like right after the first episode, but the train wreck changed everything._

 _This is my first fanfic. So really sorry if anyone is OOC, and also, what is military stuff? no idea how that works, so I'm pretending._

 _Thank you so so so much for all the support I've received so far. Like, legit I wasn't expecting so many people to be interested? Special thanks to the people who took the time to review, or just comment. Thank you, and keep reviewing because those really give me the desire to keep writing._

 _See you next time,_

 _Peace out,_

 _JellydiAngelo_


	3. Chapter Two

Chapter Two

The only thing Alphonse knew about where he was, is that it was dark and silent. It wasn't the kind of natural dark and silence he had experienced before, like in a blackout, or a cave-in. Rather it felt artificial. Like wherever he was had been carefully crafted to ensure no sound or light could reach him. The worst part was he couldn't move.

No matter how long he had been here, Alphonse couldn't get used to the suffocating feeling. He couldn't move. Couldn't see. Couldn't hear. And since he had lost his body, those things were all he had. And now they were gone. He didn't need to breathe, he didn't have lungs, or a heart, but that didn't stop the feeling that he was like a flame, slowly being snuffed out.

Before this place where he was deprived of his senses, he could remember sounds. He hadn't been able to see anything, but whoever was behind this, even they couldn't cover up some things.

Like rapid footsteps, and the shifting of rock, and the labored, painful breathing coming from Ed.

 _Ed. Brother, where are you?_

It was hard not to panic. He didn't know where his brother was. He didn't know how badly he was hurt. But there was nothing that Alphonse could do.

Except wait.

The only thing Edward knew about where he was, was that it hurt.

He drifted in and out of consciousness, never possessing enough energy to manage the task of opening his eyes. Or maybe he did. But any information obtained flitted through his mind out of reach. There was only one thought that had any substance.

 _Where's Alphonse?_

He hurt and gave way to the darkness again.

Mustang knew a lot of things, but the only thing that really mattered to him in that moment was that someone had blown up a train to get to Edward and Alphonse.

But why?

There could be any number of reasons, but the fact that whoever was behind this didn't even try to cover up the fact that the train had been bombed, with one cart intentionally spared, bothered him. In most of the cases Mustang had come across, there was at least some attempt to cover up. This could mean that either these people didn't know the first thing about covering their tracks, or they knew they wouldn't be able to be found. Mustang had a feeling it wasn't the former.

Both of them were still alive. He had to focus on that. Even if only one of the Elric's were the target, it was more than likely the other would have been taken as leverage for their co-operation. Whatever that co-operation entailed.

 _Just don't do anything stupid until I get there._

This thought was mostly directed at Edward. Alphonse had proved to be the more level headed of the two.

Mustang sat behind his desk, back in his office, staring at the ceiling. He had the full reports now practically memorized and had all the facts filtering through his head. As much as he _ached_ to get out there and track down whoever was responsible, he had to be smart about this. Whoever they were dealing with had been willing to blow up a whole train of people to get to the Elric brothers. He had no doubt they wouldn't hesitate to take down anyone else who tried to stop them.

So for now he had to wait. Everything had been immediately reported to Central and was being process by the Investigations department there. As soon as they could go forward, they would call Mustang.

Until then. Mustang sat up and picked up the already memorized file, and started to go back through it.

And he waited.

Something was moving. Alphonse still couldn't see, but he could hear something. It sounded like stone, crumbling away. A few tense seconds later, dull light filtered into his vision, and Al was no longer blind.

After so long in complete darkness and silence, it was disorienting to take in so many details at once. He was kneeling on the ground in a small room that was devoid of any objects or furniture. Though his body was free from its previous imprisonment, his hands had been bound to the floor by stone cuffs that looked like they had been transmuted from the ground. Best he could tell, he had been inside the wall, meaning one or more of the people in front of him were alchemists.

Alphonse focused his attention on the group standing over him.

There were three of them, forming a half circle above him, and glowering down at him. Or at least that's what it felt like. Alphonse couldn't really seem their faces, due to black masks that covered the lower half of their faces, which seemed very story bookish to Al.

"Hello Alphonse." The middle man spoke, startling Alphonse.

"W-who are you?" Alphonse demanded, hating the fearful hesitation in his voice. He couldn't help it though. Not when he had no idea what was going on. Not when he was so alone in this unfamiliar place. "And how do you know my name?"

The man who had spoken reached up and took off his mask, revealing a hard, square jaw, and thin mouth that seemed to go perfectly with his slitted coals for eyes.

"Now, now, of course we know your name Alphonse. We've had our eye on you for quite some time."

Alphonse internally shuddered at the implications in that sentence, but pushed them aside for the more important question. "Where's my brother?"

The man smirked. "Edward, right? He's fine of course. For now at least."

Al's soul shook, making his armor rattle ever so slightly. He was thankful, at this moment at least, for the inability of his emotions to show on his face. Not knowing what to say to that, Alphonse stayed silent and instead pulled against the stone cuffs. He strained, his armor groaning as cracks formed in the stone.

"Now, now, Alphonse. You want it to stay that way, don't you?"

Al stopped. He had no way of knowing if he was telling the truth, but he couldn't afford being wrong. "What do you want?" Alphonse growled.

The man clapped his hands, the sound echoing in the empty stone room. "I'm so glad you asked!" He crouched down so that he was at eyelevel with Al. "You see it's not every day we come across something like you." He reached out, and though Alphonse leaned away from him, there was nothing he could do to stop the pale fingers from removing his helmet, exposing the blood seal.

A low whistle. "Now that's some clever alchemy. A soul bonded to a suit of armor." His head was replaced, and the jeering face came back into sharp focus. "Quite a useful thing to have on our side, wouldn't you say?"

"I… Who are you, what do you want from me?" Alphonse demanded, repeating his previously unanswered questions.

The man smirked, "Ah yes, how rude of me. We haven't even introduced ourselves!" the man clapped his hands, an insane gleam entering his eyes. Al felt his soul shudder.

"Alphonse Elric, we will be the saviors of Amestris and you, you will help us."

 _Ahaa, look who's still alive!_

 _So sorry for the long wait. My family just moved recently and the internet has yet to be set up at our new house. That's being fixed soon, so yay!_

 _This chapter did not want to be written. Ugh, so I'm not sure it's very good but I just had to get it done so I could MOVE ON. So, sorry if it seems choppy and rushed and unrefined. Future chapters should be better?_

 _Thanks to everyone giving this story a chance, and to all those who have reviewed, you guys are da best._

 _Till next time!_

 _Peace out,_

 _JellydiAngelo_

 ** _Fir3danc3r_** _: I couldn't reply to your reviews, but thank youu for reading! I'm glad you are enjoying the story so far and again so sorry for the wait. Hopefully I'll be better now ^^. What is Mustang going to get up to? That is the question ; ) thank youu_


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